It began with rain. No storm. No thunderstorm. Just rain. Soft drops fell from the sky, landing on flowers, leaves, and pathways.

The first drop landed on a Sparkle. Nothing happened. The Sparkle kept glowing. The second drop landed on another. Then the third. Soon, tiny lights were sparkling everywhere between the raindrops, as if someone had forgotten to turn the stars off.

The rain kept falling. And somewhere among the flowers, water began to collect. At first, just a little. Then more. A small puddle appeared on one of the paths. The puddle became a stream. The stream seemed to have no idea where it was going, so it simply flowed straight through the meadow. Nobody stopped it.

Under a tree, a pond appeared. Then another. A Sparkle rested on its surface. A wave came. It passed right through the Sparkle. The Sparkle stayed. Still glowing. Then another drop of rain landed on it. It kept glowing.

Sparkland apparently had other things to worry about. Like making even more water.

A seashell suddenly appeared in the middle of the meadow. White. Clean. A little out of place. By the next morning, there were twelve.

Between the flowers, coral began to grow. Seaweed swayed beneath a tree whose roots were still completely dry. A small fish swam through the air. It disappeared behind a bush. Then came out the other side. And kept swimming.

Later, there were three fish. Then seven. Eventually, the sky was filled with tiny silver shapes. Nobody asked when the sky had become an ocean. Perhaps the sky itself hadn’t noticed.

The Transformation Begins

Then came the cloud.

It was bigger than the others. It grew larger. And larger still. Eventually, it wasn’t particularly cloud-shaped anymore. Two dark spots appeared. A dorsal fin took shape. Then a tail.

The cloud swam across Sparkland.

A shark.

Made of cloud.

It swam through the sky, slowly and completely without a care in the world. Then it opened its mouth. A small blue shark fell out. For a moment. Then it stopped in midair. It turned around and swam away. A trail of water and Sparkles lingered behind it.

Nobody commented. That would have been difficult to explain.

The rain grew heavier. The water rose. The meadow became a shoreline. The shoreline became a lagoon. The lagoon became an ocean.

Flowers disappeared beneath the surface. Trees. Paths.

And then something began to emerge.

First, a column. Then another. An arch. A staircase. A wall. Stone settled upon stone, as if a city were slowly remembering that it had once been here.

Towers rose from the water. Bridges connected ruins that hadn’t been ruins yesterday. Domes lay beneath the surface, glowing in the blue light. Coral spread across ancient walls. Pearls appeared between the stones. And deep below, wide streets opened into a city that nobody had ever built.

Atlantis.

Perhaps.

Or something that simply remembered it.

Sparkland had apparently decided that the two could be the same thing.

The Spark remained. Right in the middle of all that blue. Untouched by the water. Unimpressed by the waves. As if the ocean had never even considered trying to reach it.

Sparkles floated around it. Some above the surface. Some below. Some drifting between the ruins. One slipped straight through a column. Another came to rest beneath a dome. None of them seemed to be in any hurry.

This was still Sparkland. Just a little wetter now.

When Sparkland Becomes Sharkland

Then the last piece of land disappeared.

The ocean was everywhere. Atlantis lay beneath it. Coral glowed among the ruins. Sparkles drifted through the streets. The Spark stood above it all. And above the ocean, the shark-shaped cloud was still swimming through the sky.

The rain stopped.

The light changed.

Golden sunlight slipped through the clouds and scattered across the water. For a moment, Sparkland looked like a place that had always been this way.

As if the ocean had never been new. As if the ruins had always rested beneath the waves. As if the Sparkles had always glowed between the towers. As if the shark had always been swimming through the sky.

Then a small wooden sign appeared.

It stood on an ancient stone staircase. Nobody had put it there. It was simply there.

The letters shimmered.

SHARKLAND

And suddenly, everything was in place.

The rain. The ocean. The ruins. The coral. The Spark. The Sparkles. The shark.

Only one thing was missing.

Someone was sitting on one of the ancient staircases. Small. Blue. Looking out over the ocean.

She looked down at the towers. Then at the Spark. Then at the Sparkles slowly drifting past her.

She blinked. Once. Twice.

Sparkland said nothing. It didn’t need to.

The world was complete.

The ocean was here. Atlantis was here. The sky was here. The shark was here.

And finally, so was she.

Gawr Gura looked around. Then she looked at the little sign.

SHARKLAND

She tilted her head. For one tiny moment, everything was completely silent.

The Spark shimmered. The Sparkles danced through the water. Above them, the shark swam through the clouds.

Gura looked up. Then at the ocean. Then back at the sky.

Sparkland knew why.

The Spark knew.

The ocean knew.

Maybe even the shark knew.

Gura waited.

Nothing.

Then she blinked again.

And finally, Sparkland answered.

Because shark.

Gura looked around. A small smile appeared on her face.

“Hi.”

Then she jumped into the water.

And beneath the sparkling waves, Sharkland began to live.

The Spark remained. The Sparkles remained. Atlantis remained.

And somewhere above the ocean, a cloud shaped like a shark swam through the sky.

As if it had always been there.